Adam Zampa and Ashok Dinda claimed three wickets each as Rising Pune Supergiants outclassed Delhi Daredevils by 19 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-hit match in the Indian Premier League, in Visakhapatnam, on Tuesday.
Leg-spinner Zampa claimed three for 21 and pacer Dinda bagged three for 20 to restrict Delhi Daredevils to 121 for six. In reply, Pune were sitting comfortably on 76 for one in 11 overs before the match was called off due to rain at the Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.
Opener Ajinkya Rahane was unbeaten on a fluent 42, having hit five fours and a six from 36 balls, while George Bailey was unbeaten on eight. Usman Khawaja was the only wicket to fall for Pune, caught at point off the bowling of Chris Morris for 19, in the fourth over but there were not further setbacks for the visitors.
Pune registered only their fourth victory in IPL 9, to rise a place to seventh above Kings XI Punjab. Meanwhile, Delhi Daredevils are sixth with six wins from 12 games and will be hoping to win both their games to ensure their progress to the play-offs.
There were two interruptions because of rain. At the first rain interval, Pune were 57 for one in 8.2 overs and they continued to make good progress with the bat before the heavens opened up again.
Put into bat, the Daredevils struggled to get going throughout their innings and lost wickets at regular intervals to end their innings with a meagre total.
Karun Nair top scored for the visitors with a brisk 41 from 43 balls, while Chris Morris played a quickfire came of 38 from 20 balls to add some respectability to the total.
Had it not been the 22 runs Morris took from Thisara Perera in the last over by hitting two fours and two sixes, the Daredevils total would have been much smaller.
Dinda gave Pune the first breakthrough in the third over by dismissing Quinton de Kock (2) as his delivery swung back to hit the batsman in front of the middle stump to trap him LBW.
Shreyas Iyer was also dismissed cheaply by Dinda in the fourth over as the batsman miscued a well-directed bouncer to Usman Khawaja in the deep on the leg side. The runs were hard to come by for Daredevils as they could hit just five boundaries in the first 10 overs. Their woes were compounded as they lost the wicket of Sanju Samson (10) in the last ball of the 10th over bowled by Zampa.
Australian Zampa's legbreak drew Samson forward and ripped past the outside edge for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to execute a simple stumping to leave Daredevils reeling at 49 for 3.
The leggie struck again in the 13th over as Rishab Pant attempted an across-the-line slog but ended up being caught at long-off.
Zampa claimed his third wicket when he had Nair leg before wicket for 41, while Dinda accounted for J P Duminy, who was caught at short fine leg in the 19th over.
